Very little can be said concerning his life; scholars generally place him in South India during the 2nd century ce.
Awarded a classics exhibition to Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1940, he chose not to seek the taste of university life scholars were customarily allowed before war service and straightaway volunteered for the RAF.
While Hemingway has been the subject of endless study -- not to mention the inspiration for a licensed line of furniture -- his 21 years in Cuba are the least understood period of his life, scholars say.
During his travels he met, and stayed with Indians from all religions and walks of life: scholars, dewans, rajas, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, paraiyars (low-caste workers) and government officials.
"I spent all morning today dealing with conservative right-to-life scholars all worked up about stem cells," he told me recently, adding that he could only imagine their reaction to taking hearts from "helpless little babies".
There is one recent readable but academic study of his life by scholar Emily Bernard, but in "The Tastemaker," White delves deeper, producing a more nuanced portrait of Van Vechten's life and times, as opposed to just his work and his relationships with major figures of the Harlem Renaissance.
Life course scholars have long argued that the disadvantages that individuals face early in life compound over time, often with deleterious effects on health and well-being.
His path was often blocked as, in Szwed's words, he "stepped uneasily between the world of commerce and entertainment and the abstemious, hermetic life of scholars".
It was Sand's writing, rather than her colourful life, that scholars gathered to discuss at a week-long conference held at the beginning of July in Cerisy-la-Salle.
Change was especially evident in cultural and intellectual life, as scholars were permitted to broaden the scope of their research, and writers dealt with subjects that previously had been forbidden.
